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Police use prime Beale Street shopfront for storage

Memphis Police are using the prime storefront space at 340 Beale for storage. At a time when the bustling tourist district has little room for new businesses, former Downtown Memphis Commission president Paul Morris quietly suggests there's a...

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Police use prime Beale Street shopfront for storage

April 13, 2016 - Bruce Powell, with Parasol Awnings, measures frames to replace the awnings that surround a building on the east end of Beale Street near Fourth. MPD currently uses the store front of the building at 340 Beale for storage. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)(Photo: The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

The Memphis Police Department is using the prime storefront space at 340 Beale for storage.

At a time when the bustling tourist district has little room for new businesses, no one has raised a holler, although former Downtown Memphis Commission president Paul Morris quietly suggests there's a better use. Businesses want to be on Beale but cannot find space.

“There is demand to be on the street,’’ said Morris, interim and outgoing manager of the city-owned Beale Street Historic District, which attracts an estimated 4 million visitors per year.

"I received several inquiries last year from people who can’t find space,’’ he said, noting the Sweetie Pie's building is still tied up. “There’s not a single space up for lease on Beale between Second and Fourth. Leased up. There’s no supply so demand is going up.’’

“These items are used by officers who are assigned to this area,’’ said Rudolph, who did not identify the items. “It would not be feasible to store these items elsewhere.’’

Morris acknowledged Beale Street would be better served if the police substation building had a more vibrant use, but he added, “We have so many needs for the police on Beale, that’s not a fight I want to pick with police.

“Beale Street relies on police to be successful. Important as (a more vibrant building) is, it’s not nearly as important as all the other things police are doing,’’ Morris said.

Essentially, police have a lease with the city for use of the building. Morris said he did not know when the lease expires on 340 Beale.

Home decades ago to Monarch Saloon, 340 Beale was a tavern known for murder and mayhem, earning it the name “castle of missing men." Later when the entire three-block commercial district became a tourist attraction, the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau put an information center in the storefront, vacating it in 1997 and opening way for the police to come in.

At that time, a nightclub just outside the historic district at 380 Beale had gained notoriety for shootings. It was closed by court order several years ago. By then, police had shrouded 340 Beale's storefront windows in brown paper.

“The brown paper makes the building look unoccupied and blighted,’’ Ray Brown, chairman of the Downtown Memphis Commission's design review board, said by email. “It’s not what downtown Memphis needs.’’

If officers use other parts of the building, another solution might be to move them to the front where pedestrians can see them and construct a wall behind them to shield the equipment, Brown said.

Brown said the window paper points to a larger problem in Memphis. Said Brown: “I believe we need someone in the mayor’s office whose specific and sole remit is the design of our city. Not planning, which deals with what goes where and overall organization, but design, which deals with how things actually look and work.''

More than a year ago Beale Street management approached the Police Department about allowing management to replace the paper in the window with art or historic police photographs for a more appealing covering.

While the window covering may break the rules of urban-design theory — transparent front windows create a social connection between the inside of the building and the sidewalk — Josh Whitehead said the masking does not break city ordinances. Such window covering is permitted on Beale Street, said Whitehead, planning director for Memphis and Shelby County.

The windows being covered have not caused any problems in the past and we do not anticipate the windows being covered to cause any illegal activity to take place in front of the precinct,’’ Rudolph said. "This area is heavily patrolled and is monitored 24/7 by our Real Time Crime Center.''

Even so, police officials appear not to be insensitive.

On Wednesday, the brown paper shroud came down. An installation crew hung up white venetian blinds.

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